MQ-9 Reapers to Start Training Flights from Fort Drum

The 174th Fighter Wing, which has been operating unmanned aircraft over Afghanistan for nearly two years is about to start flying them out of Fort Drum and over Northern New York. FAA approval is coming any day now to allow the 174th Fighter Wing to begin flying MQ9 Reapers out of Fort Drum for training purposes. It’s something the unit and its support operations say will be vitally important.

Major Anthony Pasquale, with the 274th Air Support Operations Squadron said, “The biggest advantage to us is now we’re able to train to a proficiency level. Even if you take them for two weeks to Nevada and say this is the asset, its two weeks, there’s only so much they can absorb.”

The 174th is the only Guard unit operating unmanned aircraft in combat arenas and will now become the only one with a training programme for these unmanned aircraft, both for their guardsmen and units around the country. Colonel Charles Dorsey, with the 174th Fighter Wing told NewsChannel 9, “What we’ve done in the past is take some of our people and put them in a van and run them in certain places to do that sort of training.”

Four MQ9 Reapers will likely be flying within the next few weeks from Fort Drum into restricted military airspace over the Adirondacks. “We need an area where we can go fly our assigned aircraft, the MQ9, and become as expert in that as we were in the F16 and the A10 before that,” Colonel Dorsey continued.

“This just pushes us that much further into a great training environment where we’re actually training the way we fight down range,” said Col. Noel Nicolle, Fort Drum.

Col. Dorsey says the 174th’s plan to fly unmanned aircraft from Hancock Field is still being worked on and reviewed by the FAA. He says it could be a few years before they operate them there if the FAA approves it.

Source: News Channel 9

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